Weapons (2025) - a fun, funny, creepy blast of horror

Weapons, from former Whitest Kids You Know comedian and sophomore horror director Zach Cregger, is the latest much-hyped horror movie to come down the Hollywood pipeline. Every year, one or two films receive such treatment, loudly promising 'the scariest, most original horror film of the year, nay, the decade!' Sometimes, like Talk To Me, they live up to said hype; other times, not (looking at you, Longlegs).

Not long after the success of Cregger’s debut Barbarian (2022), news broke of a bidding war for his following script, the supposedly Magnolia-like Weapons. Earlier this year, cryptic trailers and posters featuring children running with their arms outspread in a lowered V tantalised the horror crowd in a manner not unlike the campaign for Longlegs in 2024.

I was a big fan of Barbarian, which I sadly missed at the cinema, but caught up with it on iTunes soon after. I liked it quite a bit on first watch, but really fell for it after a second viewing with my brother and teenage niece over the Xmas break that year, proof that it was an audience film, even if that audience was only three strong. So there was no way I was missing his follow-up on the big-screen.

I did my best to avoid the hype surrounding this film, steering clear of trailers and reviews as much as possible, except for the brief synopsis of a group of children strangely going missing at 2:17 am. Suffice it to say, I thoroughly enjoyed Cregger’s dark fairytale, despite not quite being horror’s second coming that the hype train might have led us to believe it was - but that doesn’t at all take away from what he achieved here.

Julia Garner in Weapons

The comparison to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia on Weapons is an apt one, as it follows a diverse cast of characters through the fallout and mystery of the missing kids. We begin with Julia Garner’s troubled teacher as she navigates guilt and the blame of the community, given that the missing kids all came from her class. We also meet Josh Brolin’s grieving father and chief blame thrower (in Garner’s direction), Austin Abrams’ opportunistic junkie, Benedict Wong’s school principal, Alden Ehrenreich’s beleagured cop and Cary Christopher’s Alex, the only kid from the class not to go missing. And special mention must be made of Amy Madigan’s over-the-top (in a good way) turn as Aunt Gladys, who shows up halfway through to just about steal the film away from that impressive cast.

While Weapons is longer and more leisurely paced than Barbarian, it shares that film’s wicked sense of dark fun, bursts of humour and sudden, shocking violence. I won’t go into plot specifics, as the joy of the film is discovering them for yourself, and this is a film where the journey is just as important and satisfying as the destination.

For much of the first third of the film, Weapons feels like a dark drama, clearly imbued with a supernatural undertone but not in a rush to hit you over the head with jumpscares (though there are a few) or explanations. Cregger’s penchant for tonal shifts, put to fun use in Barbarian, is taken to the next level here - he saves the biggest one for last, with a final chase scene that is both delirious, triumphant and quite mad.

Creepy ass kid in Weapons

There are many reasons why Weapons feels like a breath of fresh cinematic air, particularly amongst the other horror movies this year. Many will point to its Magnolia-like structure, and while that is true, for me, it's the patience Cregger employs with his storytelling, and his absolute trust in the audience to keep up and go along for the ride. Unlike most modern horror movies, which often feature something creepy happening every few minutes, Cregger allows us to spend time with each character and ensures that we enjoy doing so. He masterfully dishes out tidbits of info throughout the segments, like a breadcrumb trail in a fairytale, as he leads us down his dark path.

Cregger has also given us two horror films that are set in and examine suburban America, from a desolate, decaying Detroit in Barbarian to a more populated but equally rotten Maybrook, Pennsylvania in Weapons. There is probably a deeper dive to be done into this, but that is for another time, and maybe for someone smarter than me to do.

Weapons was a total blast - fun, funny, creepy and weird - just the way I like my horror.* Bring on Cregger’s Resident Evil movie, due to shoot soon, to make it to cinema screens in time for Halloween 2026.

*I pretty much like all horror, but if I had to pick a strain or style, it would likely err to the funhouse side of the genre.